Irv, Please never go through with this. My son died from suicide on January 15, 2020. It has been hell on earth for our family as it is for all survivors left in the aftermath of this tragedy. Everyone who died from suicide leaves an average of 10 others full of guilt for the rest of their lives over how we failed to save our loved one. Some are so broken they go on to do the same. Please know that we are all part of a universe where we care for each other. Irv, you matter, with your words, you reach so many people.
In 20 years technology managed to dramatically change the newspaper industry and the livelihood of all who made their work lives there. You just don't know how many lives you have touched over the years with your writing. As age adds on and health issues with all their indignities pile on, it is not unusual to wonder what the point is. I am glad you are here to share your words with the world. I believe you have so much more to share. I wish life had been kinder. Your accomplishments have been many. I can't tell you how many times i wished for you to be our reporter when we had so many who wanted to slant someone else's tragedy for news reviews. We'd all agree that we wished Irv was doing the reporting. You have integrity and a gift for telling a story. It is worth the struggle to stick around. Selfishly, I look forward to what you have to say. I know others do too from reading the comments. But do tell the doctors how tough it is, because there is help.
So well put: “Meanwhile, right-thinking people spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about what reasonable people say instead of what unreasonable people do.“
I, for one, am glad you reconsidered your suicide plan. Gun or no gun, too many people have chosen that route because they see no other. I don’t think you were taking the topic lightly, but in my world, the mental health world, I hear of people making that choice all too frequently.
If you want to make a difference in this world, make one! Decide what you can do, whom you can help feed, house, educate and do it.
You have a platform to do more than entertain and pontificate. I’ll be reading to see how you use it.
I understand in this crazy world (Trumpies, possible nuclear annihilation, complete disregard in many ways for our fellow humans and for truth) how discouraging it can be. Please stay on this side of the daisies for now. If you need to talk thru it or just hear another voice, you have my number. My brother tried to kill himself in 2019 and would have succeeded if the 26 pills he tried were not 3 years old. It messed up his already health-hampered system enough that he was gone about a month later.
Hi Irv - I sympathize with much of what you're saying in this column, and sadly agree with your concise summary of all the bad news in its first half.
However, I'd argue you're not useless or a failure and haven't wasted your time. This is because much of the good news and statistics about changing attitudes in the second half of your piece come from community members connecting and learning to accept each other -- and that's due at least partly to reading good stories, profiles and columns like yours. (The difference you make might not be evident, but that just means more digging, reporting and examining is probably needed, right?)
Sure, a big, enduring victory would be nice, but the essential, transitory nature of this job is merely binding communities a little closer for the current issue or equivalent, and you've done that and can continue to do it. Every day and every hour is another chance, and I can personally confirm that persistence always overcomes my ineptitude. Many journalists want to write books or create other works that have permanence, like being written in stone. Unfortunately, the whole field is impermanent, with products that have very short shelf lives, and are much closer to singing on a street corner, where the content disappears into the air. We have to OK with this because that's the format we work in.
Plus, even if causes like reducing global warming and others are ultimately hopeless, professionals do what's right regardless of circumstances -- just on the off chance that they aren't hopeless. Wouldn't we feel silly if it turns out we gave up too soon, like the ghosts in "A Christmas Carol," who try to help the living after they've lost the power?
Anyway, each of us must decide what to do with the life we've been given and the time available to us, "to be or not" and all that. I'd just be worried that if I departed early, I might miss something really cool or funny, or maybe miss gaining a deeper understanding of something I thought I already knew well. Below are links to a few items that keep me going. Maybe they'll be useful to you, too. Cheers -- Jim
You have such a beautiful voice. I can’t understand why you have not won a Pulitzer. And don’t off yourself; you express things that I think all the time but that I could never put so eloquently. Reading you is so satisfying, fulfilling.
Irv, I agree with you. There are shitty people out there, and no one (except maybe Elon Musk) has accomplished everything they wanted to. Life may be discouraging, but it is entirely worth riding the roller coaster another time around the sun to see what happens next. I’d be happy to pour you a scotch (and me a Tito’s) and watch and discuss the goings on in this world and speculate on things that may happen in the next one. We’ve both lost many loved ones, it’s not pretty, but we carry their memories and share them with those yet to come. And you write about it. It’s a responsibility.
I’m glad you reconsidered your plan. And it isn’t too late. It’s never too late to make changes in your little corner of the world. Changing the world as a concept is like trying to boil the ocean. Can’t be done. But you can certainly impact the things in your life closest to you. And while “changing a few things“ isn’t as lofty a goal as “changing the world,“ it’s both more realistically achievable and instantly gratifying.
I'm sorry to hear that you are unhappy with so much of the life you've led, and that you feel "it’s too late for me to get my stuff together and get the job done." I don't know you, but I do know that it's not too late. It's never too late. I think we can both agree that we need fewer people giving up these days. I do share your frustration about some things you mentioned, but no matter what anyone ever says or thinks or believes, no one will ever convince me that journalism is a wasted or unhelpful profession. I hope you'll reconsider what you mean to the world, but if you don't (or can't), I hope you keep on living for yourself. You deserve as much oxygen as anyone else. Take care.
Irv, Please never go through with this. My son died from suicide on January 15, 2020. It has been hell on earth for our family as it is for all survivors left in the aftermath of this tragedy. Everyone who died from suicide leaves an average of 10 others full of guilt for the rest of their lives over how we failed to save our loved one. Some are so broken they go on to do the same. Please know that we are all part of a universe where we care for each other. Irv, you matter, with your words, you reach so many people.
In 20 years technology managed to dramatically change the newspaper industry and the livelihood of all who made their work lives there. You just don't know how many lives you have touched over the years with your writing. As age adds on and health issues with all their indignities pile on, it is not unusual to wonder what the point is. I am glad you are here to share your words with the world. I believe you have so much more to share. I wish life had been kinder. Your accomplishments have been many. I can't tell you how many times i wished for you to be our reporter when we had so many who wanted to slant someone else's tragedy for news reviews. We'd all agree that we wished Irv was doing the reporting. You have integrity and a gift for telling a story. It is worth the struggle to stick around. Selfishly, I look forward to what you have to say. I know others do too from reading the comments. But do tell the doctors how tough it is, because there is help.
So well put: “Meanwhile, right-thinking people spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about what reasonable people say instead of what unreasonable people do.“
I, for one, am glad you reconsidered your suicide plan. Gun or no gun, too many people have chosen that route because they see no other. I don’t think you were taking the topic lightly, but in my world, the mental health world, I hear of people making that choice all too frequently.
If you want to make a difference in this world, make one! Decide what you can do, whom you can help feed, house, educate and do it.
You have a platform to do more than entertain and pontificate. I’ll be reading to see how you use it.
Bonnie Lane
I understand in this crazy world (Trumpies, possible nuclear annihilation, complete disregard in many ways for our fellow humans and for truth) how discouraging it can be. Please stay on this side of the daisies for now. If you need to talk thru it or just hear another voice, you have my number. My brother tried to kill himself in 2019 and would have succeeded if the 26 pills he tried were not 3 years old. It messed up his already health-hampered system enough that he was gone about a month later.
"Noble have I created thee, yet thou hast abased thyself. Rise then unto that for which thou wast created." Baha'i
I totally understand where you're coming from, Irv.
Thank you for opening up your kimono
Hi Irv - I sympathize with much of what you're saying in this column, and sadly agree with your concise summary of all the bad news in its first half.
However, I'd argue you're not useless or a failure and haven't wasted your time. This is because much of the good news and statistics about changing attitudes in the second half of your piece come from community members connecting and learning to accept each other -- and that's due at least partly to reading good stories, profiles and columns like yours. (The difference you make might not be evident, but that just means more digging, reporting and examining is probably needed, right?)
Sure, a big, enduring victory would be nice, but the essential, transitory nature of this job is merely binding communities a little closer for the current issue or equivalent, and you've done that and can continue to do it. Every day and every hour is another chance, and I can personally confirm that persistence always overcomes my ineptitude. Many journalists want to write books or create other works that have permanence, like being written in stone. Unfortunately, the whole field is impermanent, with products that have very short shelf lives, and are much closer to singing on a street corner, where the content disappears into the air. We have to OK with this because that's the format we work in.
Plus, even if causes like reducing global warming and others are ultimately hopeless, professionals do what's right regardless of circumstances -- just on the off chance that they aren't hopeless. Wouldn't we feel silly if it turns out we gave up too soon, like the ghosts in "A Christmas Carol," who try to help the living after they've lost the power?
Anyway, each of us must decide what to do with the life we've been given and the time available to us, "to be or not" and all that. I'd just be worried that if I departed early, I might miss something really cool or funny, or maybe miss gaining a deeper understanding of something I thought I already knew well. Below are links to a few items that keep me going. Maybe they'll be useful to you, too. Cheers -- Jim
Jim Montague, executive editor
Control (www.controlglobal.com)
1501 E. Woodfield Road, Suite 400N
Schaumburg, IL 60173
(847) 404 - 6658 (mobile)
jmontague@putman.net (email)
Kronos the yodeling elevator monkey (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teRaXxcwGqc)
Greta Van Fleet - Heat above (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrWFu5k1Jpg)
Herman Hesse -Siddhartha (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2500/2500-h/2500-h.htm)
Mahalia Jackson - Move on up a little higher (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06gAdro-62E)
Vladimir Horowitz - Klavierbend (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ELwCdgGQLQ&t=253s)
Shunryu Suzuki - Zen mind beginner's mind (https://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/zenmind.pdf)
Tweety sings Hula Lou (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_z9hcyUwxU)
Silly walk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g01TCMmIIKc)
What you wrote: "😟"
What I read: "blah, blah, blah, Green River, blah, blah, blah"
You have such a beautiful voice. I can’t understand why you have not won a Pulitzer. And don’t off yourself; you express things that I think all the time but that I could never put so eloquently. Reading you is so satisfying, fulfilling.
Stick around, Irv. You are far too valuable as a thinking, compassionate human being to the rest of us (also) sorry individuals to take yourself out.
You have a voice and a platform. We need to hang on to every angel we can :*
You under estimate the ripples from your life. Need people like you around for as long as natural.
Irv, I agree with you. There are shitty people out there, and no one (except maybe Elon Musk) has accomplished everything they wanted to. Life may be discouraging, but it is entirely worth riding the roller coaster another time around the sun to see what happens next. I’d be happy to pour you a scotch (and me a Tito’s) and watch and discuss the goings on in this world and speculate on things that may happen in the next one. We’ve both lost many loved ones, it’s not pretty, but we carry their memories and share them with those yet to come. And you write about it. It’s a responsibility.
I’m glad you reconsidered your plan. And it isn’t too late. It’s never too late to make changes in your little corner of the world. Changing the world as a concept is like trying to boil the ocean. Can’t be done. But you can certainly impact the things in your life closest to you. And while “changing a few things“ isn’t as lofty a goal as “changing the world,“ it’s both more realistically achievable and instantly gratifying.
I'm sorry to hear that you are unhappy with so much of the life you've led, and that you feel "it’s too late for me to get my stuff together and get the job done." I don't know you, but I do know that it's not too late. It's never too late. I think we can both agree that we need fewer people giving up these days. I do share your frustration about some things you mentioned, but no matter what anyone ever says or thinks or believes, no one will ever convince me that journalism is a wasted or unhelpful profession. I hope you'll reconsider what you mean to the world, but if you don't (or can't), I hope you keep on living for yourself. You deserve as much oxygen as anyone else. Take care.